Jauron press conf. transcript - 12/20

(On going against Peyton Manning)- “It’s clearly really tough. There are very few teams that have any kind of record against him over the years of his playing career. He’s clearly headed for the Hall of Fame. He’s one of the best that has ever played the game. He’s very smart. He studies, prepares himself well. It’s difficult and about everything has been tried, that’s for sure. He doesn’t win every one of them so we’ll prepare and we’ll go out there and try to play our best game.”

(On if they will try to disguise coverages against Manning)- “I think everybody does it. Everybody tries it, not only against him but in every game. You’re always trying to disguise what you’re playing. Every team will try it, and sometimes you probably do fool him, but he’s still pretty good with the ball. If you can just try to make him ready your coverage once he gets the snap in his hands, he’s plenty good enough. If you give him all kinds of indications prior to the snap, then he’s even better than that. That’s what people try to do. They are trying to hide what they are doing until he gets the ball in his hand, until the ball is snapped, and then you play and it’s on from there.”

(On if there is no point in blizing Manning because he is so effective against it)- “Honestly, he’s effective against almost everything you do, so the blitz plays a part in it. It certainly does. I think against every quarterback, even him, they’ve got to be aware that you will blitz, you’ll bring people. He reads it awfully quickly like he does most things in football. He’s extremely professional, very prepared, very experienced. He can tell by your tilts, and where the safeties go and that kind of thing, where the pressure is coming from. I think you’ve just got to keep mixing it up like people do and then fight. You’ve got to fight for 60 minutes and hope you can get some breaks, and you can get the ball bouncing your way. Some luck always plays into every game and just play hard.”

(On if he will watch past tape of Romeo Crennel’s teams who had success against Peyton Manning)- “We do go back and look at teams that played them well. It helps us somewhat if they are 4-3 teams not 3-4 teams because that’s what we are. We do look at people that we think played them well and try to see what their thinking was, why they played them well.”

(On if he’s confident that Craig Robertson and Tashaun Gipson will step up and perform well)- “Of course Craig’s been in there all the time. It’s a huge opportunity for all of our young players and particularly Tashaun’s role will increase some obviously. Usama’s (Young) snaps will go up because we were kind of rotating three. I’ll see where that one goes. It’s a great opportunity for them to play against an outstanding football team. Clearly it’s not just the quarterbacks, not just Peyton. They’ve got a really good football team around him. He’s the center of it on our side of the ball. It’ll be beneficial to their development, and hopefully they can and we can perform well.”

(On the progress Gipson has made this year)- “Tremendous progress. He’s an undrafted free agent and from the first time you see him on the field, you recognize that he’s got athletic skills. Then of course you just wonder why he wasn’t a draft pick. You would like to say all the time, ‘It doesn’t matter how they get to your camp, everybody starts equal in their play.’, but there’s always some doubt. There’s got to be something here. There’s got to be something that’s missing, but we never found it from almost the first day on. He prepares well, he works hard. He’s been tough on the field. He’s tackled well. He moves well. We think we found one. Our personnel department did a terrific job.”

(On if they have seen Gipson’s quickness stand out)- “Absolutely and it does stand out. Again, we’ve got to tip our hat to our personnel people. I think Ray Rhodes was involved in that one also. I think he knew the agent and was in the middle of that if I’m not mistaken, but that might have been Bad (Johnson Bademosi). They did a great job obtaining him.”

(On what went into the discussion about waiving Dimitri Patterson)- “I think that it would be really inappropriate for me to respond to that. I think the head coach will handle all of those questions.”

(On if he participated in the discussions about Patterson)- “The head coach can handle all of that.”

(On if it’s hard to not think about what will happen after the season)- “No, I don’t think about it. I don’t really think about anything except the season really and the next game. The rest of it always takes care of itself no matter what I think or worry, so no I don’t project.”

(On what happened on all of the boots that Kirk Cousins ran last week)- “It was tough. We didn’t play him very well. They’re a difficult scheme to play, always has been. It was more kind of vintage Mike Shanahan then all the film we see preparing for it. I can’t say it was unexpected because we knew what we would get. The volume of boots was probably more than we expected. Then, I didn’t make the best calls, clearly, and we didn’t make plays on the ball when we needed to make them. We got them in situations where we really could have helped ourselves either getting off the field or just recovering the ball. What happened on the field is what should have happened. It played itself out. It’s done. If you can just make your plays on the ball, and when it’s on the ground, fall on it, you’ve got a chance to make a difference in football games all the time, but they beat us.”

(On if he left the game impressed with Cousins)- “I thought he was good going in. I thought he was a solid NFL quarterback going in. He played a good game. He made plays. He made plays and throws versus us. My hat is off to him.”

(On what difference he sees in Manning’s arm strength now)- “Not much. He’s putting the ball on the money and he’s delivering it pretty much all over the field. His timing looks pretty much like it’s always looked. I wish it had diminished greatly, but it hasn’t.”

(On how Manning getting rid of the ball so quickly affects his pass rushing strategy)- “It’s a frustrating deal because he does get it out quickly, and a good deal of it is scheme with him. He is the scheme. He runs the scheme and he knows that. He knows exactly what he’s doing. He knows exactly where the ball is going by what he sees. Probably pre-snap he’s got an idea, and then as the snap develops he knows quickly. He gets it out quickly. Brett Favre played lots of years in the same system and the ball came out fast. You didn’t get a lot of chances to hit him. They are probably dissimilar in a lot of ways, but similar in that regard. The ball comes out fast. They know where it’s going quickly.”

(On if Tom Brady and Peyton Manning are similar)- “I would say yes. You have to have so much respect for both of them. They just are so competitive. They never give you room to breathe. They are always coming after you. It doesn’t really matter what the score is. They are going to come after you. I think you saw it, I can’t remember when the game was, when the Patriots were down 31-3, but I understand that ended up a football game. You just can never breathe easy until you’re on top and the game ends because they won’t quit and they just keep grinding on you.”

(On how Phil Taylor is playing this year)- “Phil’s got a lot of potential in front of him, and he’s playing fine. He got the late start on the year, hardly any offseason, if at all, and he’s done a nice job preparing himself. He’s playing hard and it’s all in front of him I think. I think his best years are all in front of him.”

(On if he is comfortable putting Buster Skrine in the slot role)- “I think we’ve talked about him a great deal in here and I am a big Buster Skrine fan. He’s a very easy guy to coach. He’s a very talented young player. He really wants to do it. He works at it. He studies it. He listens. He listens to veterans. I think he’s got an admirable respect for the game of football. He’s got a long career in front of him. I’m a big Buster Skrine fan. He just needs time and experience.”

(On the challenge of facing their pass offense but also Knowshon Moreno)- “It’ll be huge. It’ll be a huge challenge for our defense. They are awfully talented. They’ve got the numbers to prove it. They’ve got the players to do it. They’ve got the quarterback to run the whole thing. They are difficult to play against. It’ll be a great challenge for our guys.”

(On who the best quarterback he ever coached against is)- “I don’t know, there are so many great ones. Our three divisional opponents all have outstanding quarterbacks. You mentioned Tom Brady, what’s he won three Super Bowls? That’s hard to beat those kinds of numbers. Of course, Peyton is just Peyton. We had to play his brother earlier in the year. There are so many really good, well there aren’t so many really good ones, but the really good ones win don’t they? I guess that’s why they are who they are. They have a way about them. They have a leadership quality and the athletic skills and the toughness that it requires to hang in there. It’s a great challenge.”